The Charm Bracelet(61)

Arden ducked her head. “It’s hard to be different sometimes.”

“I know it is, Arden, I know,” Lolly said, pulling her daughter tightly into her body. “But without showing the world all of our dimensions, we’re just a flat piece of paper.”

Arden smiled and hugged her mother.

“Want to make some more?” Lolly asked.

“Yeah!”

Lolly returned a moment later and set a stack of paper on the coffee table in front of the fire. On top, one piece was already folded and cut.

“What’s this?” Arden asked.

“It’s a special snowflake for you,” Lolly said. “Open it carefully.”

Arden unfolded the paper, and, as she did, a charm came tumbling out.

“It’s a charm of a snowflake,” Lolly said. “For your bracelet. My mom gave it to me a long time ago on my birthday. She used to tell me on my birthday that the world was celebrating my uniqueness. I still believe that. And I want you to celebrate yours, too. This charm is a reminder to live a life in which you become a person of many dimensions. Only that way will you become a whole, happy person.”

Arden leaned in and hugged her mom. “Will you help me add it?”

“Of course,” Lolly said.

And then the two made a drift of snowflakes, no two alike.

*

Arden awoke with a start. She sat up quickly, snowflakes tumbling off her head and back.

A person of many dimensions, Arden thought. What happened to my angles, my muchness?

She went to bed, dragging the quilt, snowflakes trailing behind her, and dreamed of winter and the time in which she had the courage to fight for what she loved in life.





Thirty-two




Arden stopped in the lobby of Lakeview Geriatric Center and checked her hair in the mirror. She had “borrowed” a pink top from her daughter, which didn’t go unnoticed when she tried to sneak out of the cabin.

“Where are you off to in such a hurry?” Lolly had asked, as she and Lauren sipped coffee on the screened porch and worked a puzzle.

“And in my clothes,” Lauren added.

“A quick errand,” Arden had said, trying to rush by them.

“You look very pretty for a quick errand,” Lolly said. “Looks like more of a mission.”

“And I’m taking the Woodie, too,” Arden added, jangling the keys.

“But I have to work later,” Lolly called.

“Take our car,” she yelled, jumping into the Woodie. “I need this … for luck!”

Arden had watched as Lauren and Lolly gave each other a suspicious look and bewildered shrug—both mouthing for luck?—as Arden pulled the Woodie past the screened porch.

“Can I help you?” the receptionist asked, jolting Arden from the memory as she was applying some of Lauren’s “borrowed” gloss to her lips.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Arden said, suddenly embarrassed. “I’m here to see Jake Thomas.”

“Is he expecting you?” the receptionist asked.

“No … well … no, he isn’t,” Arden fumbled, grabbing a big bag brimming with food off a table in the lobby and giving it a shake for emphasis. “It’s sort of a, well, surprise. I brought him lunch.”

“Oh, you must be Arden,” the receptionist said, smiling.

“What? How…? He’s talked about me?” Arden finally noticed the little gold sign in front of her that stated the receptionist’s name. “Really, Patty? He has?”

“He has. Many times,” Patty said. “All good things. He really cares for your mom, too.”

Too, Arden thought, biting her lip to keep her from saying it out loud.

“Jake’s in the music therapy room right now,” Patty said. “Big room next to the cafeteria. You can go on back. Surprise him.”

Patty gave a dramatic wink that Arden immediately believed could imply a million things. “Thanks,” she said.

As Arden walked down the brightly lit hallway, music bounced off the walls and echoed in the corridor.

Arden stopped and tilted her head.

“Frosty the Snowman”? she thought. To kick off summer? Am I still dreaming?

She stopped at the edge of the music room, poked her head around the corner, and did a double take.

Jake was playing a trumpet and sporting a Santa hat while standing in front of a group of roughly twenty seniors, all of whom were clapping and bobbing their grey heads vigorously.

His eyes were closed, and his body was one with the trumpet, swaying, swooping, dipping with each crescendo as his fingers flew over the keys and the brass instrument danced.

Arden immediately thought of famed trumpeters like Louis Armstrong, whose music her mother loved, and Doc Severinsen, who Lolly had watched for decades on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

He looks so handsome, Arden thought. So lost in the music.

Arden began to nod her head along with the seniors, and she shut her eyes, again remembering the day her mother taught her to build a proper snow woman.

She didn’t notice the music had even stopped until she heard Jake’s voice boom, “Any requests?”

Arden popped open her eyes, her face immediately turning red, as twenty grey heads turned her way.